


We Are Going to Be Friends

by Andiandyandee



Series: Parental Logince Punk AU [4]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (It's Larry), Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Punk, Car Accidents, Child Neglect, Gay Disaster Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Gay Disaster Logic | Logan Sanders, Hospitals, I swear most of this fic is not angst, It's been a long time since I've been in high school, Larry is Logan's Brother, Logan is an idiot, Logic | Logan Sanders Needs a Hug, Logic | Logan Sanders-centric, Logince - Freeform, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mutual Pining, No beta we fall like Crowley, Not Beta Read, Prequel, Rating for Language, Remus is a Jock, Roman is a Jock, Sorry Not Sorry, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Tattoos, but there is some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23527639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andiandyandee/pseuds/Andiandyandee
Summary: How Logan and Roman met, and how they got together.
Relationships: Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders
Series: Parental Logince Punk AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688290
Comments: 124
Kudos: 152





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the title IS a White Stripes song, thanks for asking!
> 
> This story starts in like, 2010. Logan is 14, Roman and Remus are 15, Larry (L) is 17.

Logan was 14 when Roman and Remus Sanders appeared in his life. He was a freshman in high school, unnaturally tall and trying his best to be intimidating in his brother’s hand-me-down leather jacket and worn-out boots. 

“This is ridiculous, Larry.” Logan was pouting a bit, trying to keep his hair from his face. It hadn’t been cut since the middle of the last school year and was hanging messily around his chin. His brother laughed at him, tossing an arm across his brother’s shoulders. 

“First of all, You can call me L, Lo. Literally the only ones who actually call me Larry are Mom and Dad. And Dot, but she’s cute, so it’s okay.” L winked at Logan, shoving the younger teenager a bit towards the freshman hallway. “You’re going to be fine, kid. You know where your homeroom is?” Logan nodded. “Perfect! I’ll see you at lunch, okay?” Logan didn’t get a chance to agree before his brother disappeared into the crowd, lifting up who Logan assumed was Dot. He sighed and turned into the hallway, trying to find his locker. He was sure it was supposed to be here, he had found it during orientation, but there was a small crowd of sophomores laughing and pushing each other in front of where he thought it was. He steeled his nerves and cleared his throat.

“Excuse me, I believe you’re blocking my locker.” The crowd, who Logan realized consisted of not only sophomores but juniors and seniors too based on the letterman jackets they were wearing, looked at him, all of them with a bit of amusement in their eyes. Now that they had turned, Logan could see his locker, directly behind two of them who were either twins or brothers who looked incredibly similar. Logan pointed at them. “You two, the locker behind you is mine. I need into it.”

“Is that so?” The one with the green t-shirt on asked with a smirk. “Ro, I think we’re blocking tall, dark, and angry’s locker!” The one in red, Ro, pretended to look surprised. 

“Oh, my goodness, Re! We wouldn’t want to block Specs here from dropping off his trapper keeper!” Ro put a hand to his chest dramatically. “How would he ever survive!” Re laughed a little. Logan rolled his eyes and took a step into the crowd. These were obviously a combination of Jocks and theater kids, some with both patches on their jackets. Logan figured it was probably a dumb idea to piss them off this early into the school year, but he really couldn’t care less about it. He came into the school with a reputation as a trouble maker from middle school, and had been warned by the disciplinary officer that his attitude would not be tolerated here. With his shaggy hair and new growth spurt putting him at just over six feet tall, he didn’t expect this year to go much better. He was strong, actively working out four days a week with his brother, but his growth spurt left him looking lanky and thin. He placed one hand on each of the brother’s shoulders, easily pushing them away from his locker. They looked surprised. “Damn, pocket protector. You’re stronger than you look.” Ro said, sounding slightly impressed. Logan ignored them, opening the locker and tossing his notebooks and folders into the top shelf, hanging his jacket up on the hook, leaving him in just his Eddie & The Hotrods hoodie and plain white t-shirt. He slammed the door and stepped through the crowd that was staring at him with identical looks of confusion. He stomped past them and into his homeroom without giving them another thought. 

That was, until fifth period, where Re and Ro were sitting in two desks at the front of the room, loudly arguing about something that Logan didn’t care enough to listen to. He sat down in one of the two remaining chairs in the front row, right next to the far wall. He pulled out a notebook and tapped his pen against the desk, waiting for the teacher to come in. The two jocks didn’t seem to notice him, engrossed in their argument. When the teacher came in she glanced at the class and hummed. 

“Remus? Would you mind moving to the other side of your brother? I assured Simon they could have the seat closest to the door.” She asked, smiling at the green twin who nodded and stood up, turning towards the other open seat. The seat just next to Logan. 

“Oh! Specs! Aren’t you a freshman? Why are you in this class?” Remus sat down, his grin almost unsettlingly wide.

“Oh, I uh-” The teacher answered for him.

“Logan is one of the six freshmen who started taking high school classes in their last year of middle school. Part of the Highest Honors Diploma Program.” Logan nodded in agreement, glad to not have to talk more than absolutely necessary. 

“Nice! Maybe you’ll be able to help me figure out what the hell anything in this class means then.” The teacher raised her eyebrows at that. 

“First of all, watch your language. Second of all, you passed last year’s class with no problems, why would you expect this class to be a problem?” 

“I stole a copy of the syllabus,” Remus admitted. “I hate Shakespeare, and we have almost an entire semester about the old nutcase.” Ro squawked indignantly at that. 

“Shakespeare was a genius! You’re literally an ACTOR, how can you not like him?” 

“Wait, how did you get a copy of the syllabus I JUST printed them-”

“Sorry, bro, Shakespeare is an overrated plagiarist who was too lazy to learn real words so he made a bunch up to make himself sound cooler.” Remus shrugged. “Anyway, Logan, was it? You look like you’re a competent tutor, so what do you say? Will you teach me about the King of the Shadows?” Logan glanced over at the teacher, who still looked completely flabbergasted. 

“I… suppose so, if it becomes necessary, yes.” Logan agreed, albeit hesitantly. “It does seem that your.. brother is quite knowledgeable in the subject, however. Would you not prefer to have him help you?” Roman nodded earnestly.

“I am very knowledgeable!” Remus snorted.

“Roman gets distracted by passing dust motes. He would make a horrendous teacher.” Roman made a vague noise of offense but did not argue with his brother’s statement. 

“Speaking of teachers,” The English teacher said with fond exasperation, “Can this one actually start the class, or are we all going to have to listen to you three for the rest of the hour?” All three of them blushed and turned to the front of the classroom. The teacher, who’s name was apparently Mrs. White, began explaining the syllabus to them.  
  
  
  



	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch and Biology Class. What could go wrong?

As soon as the bell rang and Mrs. White dismissed them, Logan shot out of the room. He dropped his books off at his locker and headed toward the lunchroom. L was already at a table with his friends, but he waved Logan over anyway. “There he is! Guys, this is my wonderful little-”

“I’m four inches taller than you” L glared at him.

“-Okay whatever, YOUNGER brother, Lo!” Everyone at the table waved, except two at the back who were looking at him slightly suspiciously. One of them spoke up,

“Aren’t you the kid who pushed the Sanders twins this morning?” Logan blushed bright red. L raised his eyebrows and smirked at his brother.

“How could you have possibly already gotten in a fight? You’ve been here for five hours!” Logan opened his mouth to explain, but the other guy cut him off.

“Oh no, it wasn’t a fight. They were in front of his locker and he just moved them. No struggle at all. Pushed ‘em aside like they weighed like, 40 pounds.” L snorted. 

“I don’t know the Sanders twins well. They aren’t going to murder him or anything, right?” It was at that moment that said twins appeared behind Logan, Remus scooping him up bridal style. Logan let out what could only be described as a screech. 

“Put me down, you great buffoon!” Roman laughed at that, but Remus just grinned. L shot to his feet, immediately trying to come to his brother’s rescue, but finding that there wasn’t much he could actually do. The twins started to walk towards a table that wasn’t too far away from where L and his friends were. “What do you think you’re doing‽” 

“Kidnapping you! You’re sitting with us.” Remus said with a grin. Logan opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off. “No ifs, ands, or asses, Erlenmeyer Trash!” Logan raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t think that’s the saying-” Remus cut him off.

“I said what I said.” He unceremoniously dropped Logan into a chair at a table already occupied by an eclectic group of what Logan assumed were theater kids, jocks, and general preps. There were also two people with paint on their clothes and arms, who Logan assumed were either set designers or just particularly messy artists. “This is Logan, we’re keeping him.” Nobody at the table argued. Remus sat next to Logan, pulling out a grocery bag from his backpack. Roman did the same, both of the twins tossing them on the table and immediately passing out food to everyone sitting there. Roman sat an apple and water in front of Logan, and Remus handed him what looked like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “No food allergies, right?” Logan shook his head, bewildered. Everyone else at the table just took the food like this was completely normal. 

“Uh, can I ask why-” One of the people with paint on them answered his question.

“At some point last year we were all at The Sanders’ house and someone mentioned the food was totally inedible, so their Dad started packing lunches en masse. There’s pretty much always extras, so don’t worry, you aren’t taking anyone’s.” Logan looked even more confused at that. 

“Your Dad just decided to feed an army of teenagers because school lunch food doesn’t taste good?” Roman shrugged and nodded. “Isn’t that, oh I don’t know, incredibly expensive?” The same kid who answered Logan’s question laughed. 

“Dude. Sanders. Like, Thomas Sanders.” They said, as if that was an answer in and of itself. 

“Like... Actor, Thomas Sanders?” Logan asked, staring at the twins who were nodding, already eating their food. “Well, I guess that explains the dramatics, then.” Logan snorted, and the rest of the table let out laughs of varying degrees. Roman scoffed. 

“You have room to talk. You literally stomped through a group of people and shoved us just so you could hang up your jacket!” Logan had the sense to look slightly embarrassed at that. 

“Ah- sorry, about that. I wasn’t in a great mood. No coffee this morning.” The table laughed again, and the group fell into easy conversation. Logan was surprised that even though all of the people seemed to be older than him, and had clearly been friends for a while, they easily added him into their conversations, immediately teasing and joking with him like they had known him as long as everyone else. It was nice. 

After lunch, the group split up again, and Logan headed back to his locker. L was standing there with a smug look on his face. “Soo… I see you’re making friends. What happened to ‘high schoolers are all immature and ridiculous, and I refuse to bother myself with them’, huh? You seem to have bothered yourself with like twelve of them. ” Logan groaned. 

“ I did no such thing. I was kidnapped.” He opened his locker and grabbed the notebooks and folders he would need for his last two classes. “And besides, I think they only asked me to sit with them because I told Remus I would help him with our English class,” Logan admitted. He hadn’t made the connection until he started speaking, but it seemed obvious now that he thought of it. It wasn’t friendship, it was convenience. 

“I don’t know if that’s true, buddy-” Someone came up behind them, dropping a hand on Logan’s shoulder. He turned and was met with a few of the people from the lunch table. 

“Hey, Lo! What class are you heading to now? Is it a freshman class or-” 

“I’m going to Biology, with Mr. Stewart.” Two of them in the back ‘whooped’ at that. Logan thought their names were Kai and Elliot. They were the two artists. “Why.. woop?” The one who had asked, was his name Evan? groaned. 

“Damn, I’m going to pre-calc with Sloane. I was hoping you would be in that class too, literally nobody I know is in there.” He glanced at Elliot and Kai. “I think the woop was because they’re in class with you.” Evan laughed. “What about last period? Who do you have?” Logan checked his schedule. 

“Uh, trig with Mr. Padley.” Evan nodded.

“Yeah, we just call him Sloane. He’s a cool dude. Anyone gonna be in that class with Lo?” The group shook their heads. “Daamn, that sucks dude. Anyway, see ya later!” Evan waved, heading off towards the math wing with most of the group. Kai and Elliot stayed behind. Logan was mildly surprised, but simply waved his goodbye to his brother, who had a big grin on his face, and walked with them to their shared class. 

The classroom was set up at high top tables, three stools to a table, much to Logan’s relief. That meant that whoever he sat with would have someone else to talk to, and he wouldn’t have to make friends with someone in order to keep the peace if their seats they picked today became their permanent places. He was glancing around the room, trying to decide where to sit when he heard his name being called. Kai was looking at him like he was losing his mind. 

“You gonna come sit down, or are you waiting for a written invitation, Lo?” He laughed. Elliot rolled their eyes.

“He probably doesn’t want to sit next to you, loser. Trade me spots.” Kai pretended to be offended as Logan slowly made his way over to them.

“Apologies. I did not realize I was welcome to sit with you.” Logan said quietly, setting his notebooks down in the far corner so he wouldn’t be in Kai’s way. 

“What, did you think we were going to make you sit by yourself?” Elliot looked genuinely confused. Kai had a similar look of confusion on his face. 

“Well, I uh-” It was at that moment Mr. Stewart came in, immediately going into how he would tolerate ‘No Nonsense’, so the conversation was cut short, saving Logan from embarrassing himself again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at SimplySanders on Tumblr! and please leave comments/ kudos. I crave human interaction.


	3. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At some point, Logan is going to realize these people really do what to be his friends, right?

When Logan and L pulled into the driveway, they both hesitated a bit before getting out. Stepping through the door, they were immediately hit with the smell of cigarette smoke and the sound of arguing. Their mother turned to the two teenagers, an accusatory glare on her face. 

“Where the hell were you two?” L raised his eyebrows.

“School? It was the first day today.” Their mother’s mouth opened into an ‘o’ shape. 

“I thought school started tomorrow.”

“Nope. Wednesday, September 1st. Which is today.” L said, trying and failing to keep the sarcasm from seeping into his voice. His mother nodded, apparently too embarrassed to argue with him. Both teenagers bolted up the stairs to their rooms. Once Logan had shut his door, he collapsed on his bed, laying there for about 20 minutes. He was contemplating just taking a nap when he heard quiet knocking on his door. “Hey, Lo? I’m heading to work, did you want to come with? I figure you wouldn’t mind getting out of the house, and I’m sure you can find something to do at the mall.” Logan jumped up, grabbing his jacket as he went to the door. He swung it open to see L right in front of him. 

  
  
“Yes, please,” Logan said with a grin. He snatched his bookbag with his homework (Seriously? It was the first day. Were these teachers kidding?) and followed his brother downstairs. 

“Hey, Mom? Dad? I’m heading to work, and I’m gonna drop Lo off so he can start on homework.” Their mother shouted back some vague agreement and the two headed out to the car. “I’m done at 9, is that alright?” L asked, backing out of the driveway. 

“Yeah, that’s fine. I actually am going to work on some homework. Probably get some coffee, antagonize the local Hot Topic employees. You know, the usual.” Logan snorted. “And if I decide to go home before you I’ll text you. It’s only a 30-minute walk.” L nodded.

“Okay, cool. If you need anything before that you know where I’ll be.” 

“Hell. Gotcha.” L laughed at that, but didn’t disagree. They pulled into the mall parking lot and Logan jumped out, waving and heading towards the Starbucks. He ordered a macchiato and sat at one of the empty tables. Pulling out his Biology book and a notebook, he started working through some of the chapter one summary questions. He grabbed his coffee when his name was called, and then put his headphones on. 

Now, admittedly, Logan had a tendency to be unobservant at the best of times, but especially when he was listening to music, so it did not come as a shock to him to realize that he had not noticed the teenagers who piled into the starbucks, nor that they had sat down at both his table and the one next to it. They were all chatting, drinking coffee, and working on homework, and none of them had bothered him, so they might as well have not been there at all. It wasn’t until Roman waved his hand in front of Logan’s book that he realized he was surrounded by even more people than those who were at the lunch table. A handful of them were looking at him expectantly. Logan slowly pulled his headphones off, completely bewildered.

“Wait, What?” He asked, realizing that someone had probably asked him a question. Roman laughed.

“I  _ said,  _ Are those the chapter one problems for Stewart? I can’t find the answer to question nine.” Logan glanced down at his paper, checking to see what question nine was. 

“Oh, It’s in the “Did You Know” bubble on page thirteen.” Logan stammered, trying to figure out how he had been surrounded, and more importantly,  **_why._ **

“Ah! You’re a blessing!” Roman said, flipping to the correct page and jotting down the answer. Logan looked around, noticing Remus wasn’t at either table. He was about to ask when Roman waved a hand dismissively. “He’s at a doctor’s appointment, he’ll be here in like twenty minutes.” Logan started a bit, trying to figure out how Roman knew what he was going to ask. “People are always surprised when they don’t see us together for the first time.” Roman shrugged, going back to his homework. 

“Oh, okay.” It was not okay. He was pretty sure Roman could read minds. Logan looked back at his homework, trying to keep himself from asking why they decided to sit with him. Which he did not succeed at. “Uh, so don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but why exactly did you all decide to sit here?” Roman looked like that was the last thing he expected to hear.

“Oh, jeez, sorry! Were you waiting for someone? We didn’t mean to assume-” Logan cut him off.

“No, no, it’s fine. I was just... Wondering.” He trailed off, realizing he probably sounded like a jerk.

“We just.. Wanted to sit with you, I guess. There wasn’t any like, planning for it. We just saw you and all sort of decided to sit down.” Roman still looked kind of confused about where the conversation was going. “Do you want us to go?” Most of the group was chatting in small groups, ignoring Roman and Logan’s conversation, but a few of them were looking at Logan the same way Roman was. 

“No!” Logan cleared his throat, “Er- no, you’re more than welcome to stay.” He gave them a small smile, his mind still reeling from the fact that they didn’t seem to want anything from him. “Your, uh, companionship is a welcome surprise.” Roman snorted at that.

“Alrighty then, All Time Lo.” Roman looked pretty smug about that one, but it took Logan a full fifteen seconds to realize the pun.

“Wha-? Oh! Oh.” Logan rolled his eyes.

Elliot rolled their eyes too. “I think that one was your worst nick-name to date, Ro.” Roman gasped dramatically, and the two started playfully bickering back and forth, seeming to forget the conversation they were just having with Logan, who went back to working on his homework, leaving his headphones hanging around his neck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me at SimplySanders on Tumblr!  
> And please comment, I crave human interaction lmao


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan Walks with Remus, Roman unintentionally sounds like a jerk, and Logan probably needs stitches.
> 
> (This chapter details child abuse. Be wary.)

True to expectations, Remus arrived twenty minutes later, looking tired and slightly upset. He ordered a drink, stood at the counter until it was made, then headed over to the table. He glanced around, looking for an available seat, and perked up a bit when he saw the one between Roman and Logan was open. He dropped down in the chair, not saying anything, but fluffing Roman’s hair as he sat. Roman rolled his eyes, but looked at his brother with a questioning look, that clearly conveyed ‘you okay?’. Remus nodded, then said in a hoarse voice,

“Dr. Picani wants to try a new med. Says the current one doesn’t seem to be working right.” Roman winced sympathetically. 

“Did you already pick up the new prescription or do you want to walk over to the Pharmacy?” 

“I have to pick it up, but I can go by myself, I know you still have homework left.” Logan glanced over at the two, debating whether or not to say anything.

“I don’t know if it’s a great idea for you to walk over there alone, Re. You don’t look so great.” Remus went to argue, gesturing at Roman’s half-finished homework when Logan interjected. 

“I can walk with you, if you’d prefer. I’ve finished my homework for the day.” That wasn’t exactly true, but he had finished most of it, and he could do the last few questions when he got home. Roman nodded encouragingly at Remus, who glanced at Logan and gave him a small smile. 

“That sounds great, Logan. Thank you.” Logan just nodded, standing up with Remus. He dropped his mug off at the counter before following Remus out the door. 

  
  
  


The walk was mostly quiet, Remus humming what sounded a lot like the villain song from The Princess and the Frog. Logan was shrinking more into his jacket with each step. Was this a bad idea? Did Remus not want him to come? He should have realized that Remus wanted to be alone, or wanted one of his actual friends to come with him. Oh god, did he already ruin his first actual attempt at friendship-

“Thanks for coming with me,” Remus mumbled. “And thanks for not asking.” 

“Asking?”

“About what the meds are for. People tend to ask, and it always sits weird with me.” Remus shrugged, pulling the pharmacy door open for Logan. “I don’t mind talking about it but I hate the way people look at me when they ask.” 

“Remus.” Logan placed a hand on the older boy’s arm, stopping him from walking forward. Remus looked at Logan, confused. “You don’t need to thank me for respecting your privacy, and you don’t owe anyone, including your friends, or family, for that matter, answers to questions that make you uncomfortable.” Remus paled, glancing down to his feet. “And, for the record, if anyone makes you feel like you have to tell them, or like you have to do anything you don’t want to, let me know, and I’ll kick their ass for you.” Remus laughed at that.

“Thanks, Logan. You’re a good friend.” 

  
  


“Damn right, I am.” Logan grinned, pretending to not be shocked by the softness in Remus’s voice. Or the sincerity. 

  
  
  


When they got back to Starbucks, Roman was arguing with a barista. The barista looked amused, arguing back casually while making drinks. When he saw Logan and Remus come through the door, he grinned brightly. “See! I TOLD you I have a twin brother!” The barista looked up, then groaned.

“Okay, fine. So you haven’t had three drinks in an hour. You’ve still had TWO, which is more sugar and caffeine than and one person should have.” Roman pouted at that. 

“Ugh, fine. Are you ready to go? I think we’re going to head home and chill for a bit.” Roman asked, looking at his brother and Logan. “Oh, uh... I guess I didn’t actually ask if you wanted to come, Lo. Do you want to-” Logan bristled at the way Roman hesitated before asking.

“No, thank you, Roman. I think I’m going to head over to the mall.” Remus glanced between his brother and Logan, obviously trying to figure out where the sudden tension had come from. 

“Oh, are you sure? We have plenty of room-” Logan shook his head, grabbing his bag from where he had left it when he went with Remus and waved casually as he left the building. Clenching his fists and rolling his shoulders, trying to push down the wave of disappointment at Roman’s hesitation. It made sense that Roman wouldn’t want Logan around, but it still hurt a bit to have his suspicions confirmed. He wondered if Roman had only sat with him out of pity.  _ Poor Logan, he doesn’t have any friends, we should try to include him like some weird, ugly duckling adoption program.  _ He took a deep breath, trying to ignore the oppressive wave of apathy that was settling on his shoulders like a protective blanket.  _ Better to feel nothing than to be drowned in disappointment, right?  _ He walked into the mall, nodding at his brother as he passed the food court kiosk that he was working in, and wandered towards the hot topic. He wasn’t thrilled about buying anything from such a corporately owned establishment, but he figured if nothing else, they would be playing halfway decent music. He wandered around for a few minutes, finding a Nasa tank-top he actually liked on sale, and setting it up on the counter. The cashier, a teenager probably L’s age, smiled at him. 

“Is this everything for you?” Logan didn’t answer, just nodded disinterestedly. Her smile faltered at his dismissiveness, so she rang him up and told him his total- $9.10- and handed him his bag. He nodded at her, wanding back through the mall, quickly letting his brother know he was just going to head back to their parent’s house. Not home, never home, just “Mom and Dad’s place”. His brother nodded, telling him to be careful, and Logan left the mall quickly. 

With his headphones on, and his eyes trained on the ground, he didn’t notice that the crowd of preps that seemed to be everywhere he was (Perks of a small town, he supposed. It was hard to miss a crowd of twenty teenagers.) were all sitting in a yard to his left. He also didn’t notice the way several of them called him over, or the way they looked both confused and mildly offended when he walked right past them without even acknowledging their existence. He turned the corner at the end of the block, cutting through his parent’s yard and onto the porch. He hadn’t even made it through the door before he could smell marijuana and alcohol. He groaned, knowing that while his father would almost certainly be calmer now that he was high, his mother would be drunk, which meant she would be far more aggressive than typical. He opened the door and started coughing at the smoke. His father raised his head, vaguely acknowledging his son. Logan looked around, trying to figure out where his mother was, only to figure it out when what was at one point a beer bottle shattered against the wall directly behind him. He jumped forward, turning towards his mother, astonished. 

“What the hel-” He started, but cut himself off. His mother was standing, swaying a bit on her feet.

“Where’s your brother?” She was slurring her words.

“He’s at work, mother. He told you that before he left.” He could feel his throat tightening when she stepped towards him. His boots crunched glass as he stepped away from her, his back now against the wall. He was trying to figure out if he could make it out the door before she made her way to him when the second bottle came flying towards him. It, like the first, hit the wall, but the glass shards flew into his face and neck, most of them harmlessly hitting him and falling to the ground, but a few scraped him, and even fewer stuck into his skin. 

“Don’t talk- don’t talk back to me!” Logan swallowed around the lump in his throat. 

“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, Ma’am.” She nodded before coming forward to stand in front of him. Her eyes narrowed, and before Logan could apologize again she slapped the side of his face that didn’t have glass in it. Logan, who was admittedly not expecting that, fell at the impact, his hand that reached out to catch him sinking into the glass. “Fuck!” He groaned, the combination of blood and beer on his skin made him feel nauseous. Or, perhaps, it was the pain. His mother had already left, going back to her previous seat in the kitchen, and Logan was left on the floor, bleeding and trying to keep himself from crying. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at SimplySanders on Tumblr! and/or leave comments and kudos. I crave human interaction.


	5. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan decides that many elements of high school are unnecessary.
> 
> Graphic discussions of injury

When Logan picked himself off the ground, he could tell by the black dots swimming in his vision something was very wrong. He carefully cleaned up the broken glass, ignoring the way his hands shook, and made his way outside. It had somehow gotten dark since he had last been out. He knew if he went to his room he would go to sleep, and he needed to stay awake until his brother got home. He made it to the end of his parent’s yard, to the staircase that led to the sidewalk. His bag sat next to him on the steps, but his homework was all but forgotten. He was mostly focusing on his breathing, actively trying to remain conscious. He did not notice the loud pair of teenagers wandering past his house, which was not uncommon anyway, Logan hadn’t realized it before, but Remus and Roman’s friend group had always been wandering around the town, and plenty of the neighbors complained about how loud they were, but most of the noise was just the twins, whose voices carried without them even trying. He did not notice the way they slowed to a stop and stared at him, calling out his name, trying to get his attention. He did not hear the whispered,

“Is that Logan?” or the more panicked,

“What the hell happened to him?” 

  
  


When the twins made it to Logan, he was coherent enough to glare at them. He was not able to do much more than that. He did have enough of his parents' DNA in him to swing at Remus when he grabbed Logan’s arm, apparently. The glass embedded in Logan’s hand cut Remus’ jaw, but the punch itself didn’t have much power behind it. All it really managed to do was cause Logan to groan in pain. 

“Jesus, Logan. What the hell is going on?” Roman was looking quickly between the two bleeding teenagers. Remus looked shocked more than hurt, and Logan looked hurt more than angry. 

“Good news, little brother! We no longer have the same face!” Remus was looking at his reflection in his cell phone screen. “This is totally going to scar.” 

“Rem. Need you to focus, buddy.” Roman was more than a little panicked. Logan was looking kind of grey, his eyes glassy and his brow shining with sweat. “What do we do?” Remus seemed to refocus when he heard Roman’s tone.

“Oh! Uh, we should probably call someone, right? Is this his house? Maybe get his parents.” Logan shook his head violently at that. 

“No no no I’m… I’m sorry plea..se. don’t send me back to the… them.” His words were slurred, and he was trying to move away from the brothers. 

“Woah, hold on there nerdy wolverine.” Remus coaxed Logan back into a sitting position. “Nobody is going to make you go anywhere, but you’re gonna pass out if we don’t get your hand looked at. And your face, too. Did you try to go swimming in a bar trash can or something? You stink!” Roman gently smacked his brother’s arm. “Oh, sorry.”

“What Remus  _ means _ to say is you are bleeding and smell like beer, and need stitches probably. We need to know what happened, or who to call.” 

“You don’t… you don’t need to call anyone. I’m... I… I’ll be fine until L.. til L gets off work. Go back to… go back to being farther away than this.” Logan was leaning heavily against Remus, who laughed in a way that was definitely more out of fear than amusement. 

“How about I sit with you until L gets back, and Ro runs home to grab some first aid stuff?” Roman looked like he wanted to protest, but Remus ignored him. “What do you think we’d need to help you, Logan?” 

“Tw...eezers? And water.” Logan nodded like that was obvious. “Maybe a… maybe a light? And bandaids.” Roman nodded, backing away about ten feet before turning and booking it around the corner. 

“So, Three Days Glass- oh god that was awful sorry- You want to tell me what happened here?” 

“I… went swimming in… a bar trash can,” Logan joked weakly. Remus was fully supporting his weight at this point.

“So we aren’t going to talk about it then?” Logan was now staring at Remus’ face with mild curiosity.

“I think you’re bleeding.” Remus laughed loudly at that.

“Yeah, some asshole punched me with glass in his hand.” Logan nodded solemnly

“I’ll fight them.” Roman was heading back towards them now, a first aid kit and a large sports bottle in his arms. “Your brother is.. Fast” Logan mumbled. “He doesn’t like me.” Remus looked over at the younger kid. 

“What makes you think that?” Logan went to answer, but he was cut off by Roman’s loud voice.

“Okay Logan, Do you want me to start with your face or hands?”

“Actually, Ro, I think I should be the one to do this.” Remus gently took the supplies from Roman’s hands. “I’m better with blood than you are.” Roman’s eyes widened, but he nodded and flipped on the light instead, shining it at Logan’s cut face. With the new light, the brothers could see the bruise forming on the side opposite the glass, but neither mentioned it. Logan talked Remus through the best way to remove the glass, explaining how to clean out the cuts with the water, the squeeze top on the sports bottle was very good at that, to get any small pieces out. Remus promptly ignored his brother, who was mumbling quietly about how much  _ blood  _ there was. 

“We should call a doctor, Remus, this isn’t like when you come back from the woods with scrapes from trees and rocks, glass is serious” Roman was barely coherent. “We should call Dad, at least.” 

“ **_No_ ** .” Remus shot back without looking up from where he was not pulling glass from Logan’s hand. “He said not to call anyone, Roman. Just shine the damned light on his hand so I don’t fuck anything up.” Roman mumbled on ‘okay’ and shined the light back on Logan’s hand. “That big one probably needs stitches, but the rest aren’t as bad as they look. He’s probably like this more from the pain and shock than actual blood loss.” Remus muttered. Mostly to himself. “ The hands are made up of thirty-four muscles, twenty-nine bones, three major nerves, and two major arteries , with around 2,500 nerve receptors per square centimeter in the hand” He shook his head. “Need to focus, focus” Logan looked up at Remus curiously. “ Glass injuries are exceptionally dangerous because small fragments of the glass can be missed, causing infections that can spread from the skin to the blood to the heart and brain, causing major organ damage and failure, eventually leading to-”

“Did you know Mars has almost the same amount of landmass as Earth?” Logan asked Remus, who immediately cut off from his spiraling thoughts to look at him curiously.

“Mars is way smaller than Earth,” Remus argued, still carefully cleaning each of the smaller cuts, most of which were on the palm of Logan’s hand, avoiding the biggest one, which was firmly set in between his knuckles.

“That’s true. Mars... Mars only has 15% of Earth’s volume, but since... 70% of Earth is covered in water... They have about the same land.” Remus hummed at that. “Did you know that there have been signs of liquid water on Mars?” Roman looked at Logan incredulously. 

“Specs, I appreciate a good martian lecture as much as the next guy, but why are we having it  _ now?  _ Aren’t there more important things to be talking about?” Logan ignored him, still focusing on Remus.

“We know Mars has water in the form of ice, but because of the extreme temperatures, scientists assume the water is either incred..” He drew in a shaky breath, “incredibly salty or is otherwise high in something that prevents it from freezing. Its temperatures range from -153 to 20 °C with surface temperatures from -87 to -5 °C.” Remus had moved on to the largest injury in the hand. His voice wavered a little when he called out,

“Roman, can you come here?” Roman moved closer, seeing the injury up close for the first time. 

“Holy shit, Rem there is  _ no way-” _

“I know, Ro. What do I-” Logan finally looked at his hand properly. The largest glass shard, about an inch and a half and jagged, and still bleeding noticeably. The swing he had taken at Remus had probably set it much further into his hand than the rest. 

“It’s going to hurt when it is removed.” Logan nodded, as if steeling himself to a resolution. 

“Lo I don’t think I can pull that out. I don’t think I could get a good enough grip with these.” Remus held up the tweezers. 

“No, I don’t imagine you could. Thank you for your assistance, Remus, Roman.” He nodded to each of the twins in turn. “Allow me to compensate you for the bandages.” Logan used his good hand to pull his wallet out of the bookbag next to him. 

“What? Logan you don’t have to pay us for bandaids.” Remus looked shocked. “We’re your friends. We wanted to help. Come on, I’ll call Dad and he can take us to the ER. They’ll be able to get that big piece out and make sure there are no other bits we can’t see.” Logan recoiled from Remus’ hand on his arm and held out a twenty-dollar bill.

“I appreciate your help, but we are not friends.” Both twins looked at him with identical looks of confusion. “I have no interest in any companionship. Please, take the money.” Roman rolled his eyes and took the money, setting it down on the ground between them. 

“Logan, I don’t know what makes you think we’re going to take that bullshit as an answer, but we aren’t and there’s no way we’re just going to take your money and leave you bleeding on the sidewalk, either.” Roman insisted.

“Yeah! We’re trauma bonded now!” Remus replied, slightly too enthusiastically. Logan stood, ignoring the wave of nausea and vertigo that threatened to send him crashing back to the ground. 

“No. I am not interested in being friends. Remus, make sure you take your medication when you get home, I believe you’re becoming manic.” Remus flushed red. “Have a good evening, gentlemen.” Logan grabbed his bag and went back to his parents’ house, avoiding the front door and walking around to the back yard. He could hear the twins arguing, but he ignored them in favor of searching the shed for the tool kit he knew was there but had never been used. It only took him a few minutes to find the pliers, still in their plastic packaging. His hands were still shaking, his head was pounding, and his heart was beating much too quickly as he pulled the package open with his teeth. It took another ten minutes and several failed attempts before he pulled the glass out. It took another forty-five minutes for L to find him, leaning against the workbench, eyes red and breaths coming in short, rattling sobs. 

It took until Monday for him to leave his bed, his brother assuring him that he had let the school know he had been ‘mugged’ and had needed a few days to recover. But time passed, as it most always does, and Monday came, leaving Logan to walk into the high school with his chin held high, back perfectly straight, glasses sitting perfectly even, as if the deep purple bruise, which now had yellows and greens, was not there. As if his right hand, not his dominant hand, thankfully, wasn’t tightly bandaged. As if he wasn’t still far too pale. He wasn’t speaking much, only a few words here and there since Wednesday night. L was worried, but it wasn’t uncommon for Logan to go silent for a few days, and even up to a week, at a time, so he mostly let it go. 

Logan didn’t bother saying goodbye to his brother as he turned into the freshman hallway. He saw his locker, which had several “Get well” cards taped to it. Small towns meant everyone knew everything. Or at the very least, they thought they knew everything. He didn’t bother to read them, pulling them down from the door and setting them on the top shelf. He hung up his jacket, leaving him in his navy blue dress shirt, his sleeves rolled halfway up and the top two buttons undone, showing just the collar of his t-shirt underneath it. Several of Remus and Roman’s friends tried to stop and talk to him as he made his way to homeroom, but he pretended to not notice. He brushed past every one of them, pointedly ignoring those who tried talking to him in classes, pretending like they weren’t waving him to their groups now that the first semester projects had begun. He spoke only when spoken to by a teacher, otherwise keeping his jaw clenched tightly closed. 

By the time his English class had come around, most of the group had stopped trying to catch his attention. Remus looked at him as he walked in, giving him a ghost of a smile before looking back to Roman, who was facing away from the door. Logan didn’t acknowledge he saw it, stepping past them and sitting in his seat without saying a word. He ignored the way Roman’s eyes bored into him. He ignored the way his eyes burned and his throat tightened when Remus asked how his hand was. He took notes, didn’t answer any questions he wasn’t specifically asked, and pretended as if the Sanders twins weren’t both not so subtly trying to get his attention. When the bell rang, he flinched, only a little, as he did at most loud noises now. 

‘Trauma bonded’ Remus had joked, not realizing that there actually was genuine trauma. This had not been the first time his mother had lost her temper, no, but this was the first, and last, though Logan didn’t know that, time that she had caused actual physical damage. It had broken something in Logan, some sense of security he hadn’t even known he had. 

When she had come to his room the next morning to apologize, panicked apologies had torn their way from his throat. They both were in shock, him lowering himself to be as small as possible, her trying her best to not scare him more. 

By Sunday, Logan had managed to bite back any visible emotional response to her. He had done this by shoving down every visible emotional reaction he made. He had wondered if it was healthy to be quite so good at keeping his emotions swallowed down. 

Now, Monday, his face was completely passive. Not even an eyebrow raise gave away what he was feeling. When he came into the lunchroom, there were many eyes on him, several people whispering about how anyone who talked to him said he sounded like a ‘robot’. His responses to ‘are you okay?’ ranged from ‘there will be no permanent damage’ to ‘yes, I am quite well, excuse me.’ but all answers were given in the same flat, bored tone. He went through the hot lunch line, getting what he suspected was supposed to be a chicken sandwich but looked more like a beige hockey puck. He sat at an empty table towards the front of the lunchroom, not far from the Sanders twin’s table, ignoring his brother, who had waved him over. He was sitting, picking at his food and listening to music when someone sat down next to him. He did not take his headphones off, refusing to even look to see who they were. He knew it was not L, so he suspected it was one of the people who had attempted to make ‘friends’ on his first day. If they tried to talk to him, he didn’t notice. They didn’t touch him and sat at least one seat away. When the lunch period was over, they got up and left before Logan had even taken his headphones off. 

The rest of the day went similarly, him ignoring Elliot and Kai other than to discuss the lab they had been given. The next week went exactly the same. He still didn’t look to see who sat with him at lunch, still didn’t speak to the twins, still answered questions with replies that sounded like they were written by an AI. Any answers to teachers' questions regarding class were answered as if he were reading them from the textbook. 

Two weeks passed, nothing changed much. Remus stopped smiling at him, even a little when he entered English class. Whoever had been sitting with him at lunch apparently decided it wasn’t worth it. Teachers called on him to answer questions only when nobody else seemed to have an answer, knowing he would give them a flat, incredibly accurate explanation even if his hand wasn’t raised, which it never was. 

  
By the end of the first semester, as far as anyone could tell, Logan Starr had no emotions. Even L had eventually given up on trying to get through to the younger teen. Logan told himself he wanted that. It was better to be alone. Emotions were unnecessary. Friends were unnecessary. Happiness was unnecessary. And frankly, Logan told himself, _ he was unnecessary too. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lmao I am so sorry this took me forever. I could not figure out how to write this chapter.
> 
> Find me at simplysanders on Tumblr, or leave a comment! I crave human interaction!


	6. Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan steps in when Remus needs a little help, and may have accidentally given himself a new reputation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is 100% just Protective Punk Logan, because Logan would absolutely kick anyone who didn't treat people with respect's ass.

Logan wasn’t sure how long it had been since he had spoken to the Sanders twins. Months, for sure, but it was difficult to say how many. It had been before his birthday, certainly. He had gotten quite good at keeping up with his ‘mostly apathetic but also very short-tempered’ personality, and frankly, hadn’t really thought of them much. They weren’t friends, and they really had only known each other about 12 hours before they stopped talking. Which was why he wasn’t sure what was compelling him to step in between Remus and the guy who was leaning over him. 

Logan was only out to ‘run to the restroom’ which was typically his excuse when his history teacher annoyed him and he wanted to leave before he lost his temper when he saw the pair slightly down the hall from him. Remus looked pale and jumpy, which could have just been that he was nervous, but Logan couldn’t shake that Remus looked  _ scared.  _ He had his arms wrapped tightly around his torso, and he was making himself small against the locker he was pressed against. The other guy, Logan could not remember his name, but he thought he might be a senior baseball player, was blocking Remus’s escape with an arm, obviously trying to flirt, but seemed to be coming off possessive and maybe scary. Remus wasn’t short, probably nearing six feet tall and he was muscular, but the Senior still had an easy three inches on him, and probably forty pounds of muscle. It made sense that Remus would be intimidated, but Logan was nearly 6’5, still dealing with the repercussions of his growth spurt, and he was not easily intimidated. He had started dressing more traditionally ‘punk’ now that he was buying his own clothes. (Larry’s hand me downs no longer fit, save for the jacket and boots) People recognized him as a ‘nerd’ for his classroom demeanor, but nobody was brave enough to go so far as bullying him. With sharp cheekbones and his long, unruly hair now brushing his shoulders, people avoided anything that could even potentially lead to pissing him off. 

He was trying to catch Remus’s eye, trying to see if he needed help, but his eyes were trained on the floor. Logan groaned quietly, knowing he was going to regret this, and walked over to the pair. 

“Hey, Rem. Sorry to interrupt but do you have the English homework? I just need to know where to find the answers to questions 14 and 16.” Both Remus and the Guy were looking at him now, Remus with wide eyes, either scared of the guy or shocked that Logan had willingly spoken a sentence. The Guy looked annoyed.

“Can’t you find someone else to give you to homework, you fucking weirdo? We’re obviously a little busy here.” Logan kept a completely neutral face but glanced at Remus, who was now clearly pleading with Logan for help. 

“No, unfortunately, I can’t. I’m sure you can find some other unwilling sophomore to intimidate,” Logan glanced at the Guy “or perhaps you could crawl back into whatever primordial ooze released you now instead of with the other Cro-Magnons.” The Guy, Logan was starting to remember his name was something akin to Charlie, looked confused, and angry.

“Listen here, kid.” Charlie stepped away from Remus, who immediately scrambled to be behind Logan, “I don’t know who you think you are, but I’ll kick your ass right now if you want. No,” Charlie sneered, “ _ freshman _ is gonna tell me what to do.” Logan nodded as if this was reasonable.

“Remus? Are you particularly attached to this person?” Logan glanced behind him, to see Remus hesitantly shaking his head ‘no’. “Wonderful. Why don’t you go find your brother, and tell him you’re experiencing extremely high levels of anxiety, and will probably need someone to talk to you down from a panic attack. If it’s not too much trouble, you may also want to let the office know there is a bleeding student in the hallway.” Remus looked confused at that. 

“No-nobody is bleeding, though.” Logan grinned at Remus, which was the first time he had smiled in a while. 

“You’re right, of course. Let’s remedy that.” Logan turned around and landed a left hook to the senior’s face. Charlie dropped, groaning loudly. 

  
  


“Now, I’m going to head back to class, there aren’t any cameras in this hallway, and Charlie here is going to need some ice. I’ll see you in next period.” Logan stepped over the senior, heading back towards the history classroom with a two-fingered salute and a wink, and Remus turned to the office, to let the nurse know some senior had just tripped and landed face first in the hallway. 

  
  


When Logan entered the English room, most of the class, who had been whispering about how Charles Brookes had been beaten up by ‘some punk kid’, stared at him.

Whoever had seen the event apparently did not recognize Logan, but said that the punk kid was protecting one of the Sanders Twins. Most of the school was fond of Roman and Remus, so of course, nobody was on Charles’ side, but they were all trying to figure out who it was. Speculation pretty much stopped completely when Logan brushed his hair from his face and everyone saw the bruise forming on his left hand, but the whispers did not stop. Logan rolled his eyes and moved over to his seat, sitting down casually and opening up his notebook. He could feel eyes on him, not just from the rest of the class, but from the two sitting to his right. He took a deep breath before turning to the two.

“Remus, I heard you were involved in an altercation earlier this morning. Are you quite well, now?” There was a ghost of humor in his eyes as he leaned on one hand, pretending to not know what happened. People went silent when they heard him speak, as they often did. His voice was authoritative, and left no room for disrespect, even though he was a 15-year-old freshman who was in desperate need of a haircut. 

“Y-yeah, I’m fine now, Lo. Thanks for asking.” Roman, who obviously knew the truth, was staring at Logan suspiciously. 

“Excellent to hear. It’s good to know someone was looking out for you, at least.”

“Oh, yeah. I should have expected it honestly. They’re kind of an asshole, but they did promise me when we first met that ‘if anyone makes me feel like I have to do anything I don’t want to, to let them know, and They’d kick their ass for me.’” Remus did a poor impression of Logan’s voice as he said it, which immediately brought a tinge of red to Logan’s cheeks and ears. Logan hummed, tapping his pen on the desk.

  
“A good sentiment. I am glad they were there, and hopefully, _ that same sentiment is extended to anyone who needs it _ .” Logan put just a bit of inflection at the end of that, knowing that most of the class was listening. Remus beamed, and Roman gave him a small smile, but Logan had already turned to the front of the room, pretending like he couldn’t tell half the room was staring at him like he had hung the stars. Things were by no means fixed between Logan and the people who could have potentially been his friends, but he did hope they were at least somewhat less tense. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out at SimplySanders on Tumblr! and comment, for I crave human interaction.


	7. Part 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan makes new acquaintances and attends a sleepover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actively writing not super angsty stuff right now because I just want these losers to be normal ass teenagers for a bit, okay?

Logan did not expect that comment in his English class to escalate to.. this, but he didn’t argue when a freshman girl, one of the others who had begun taking high school classes early and was therefore in several of his classes, asked if she could sit with him at lunch, just so nobody would bother her, a few days after the incident. She had braces and glasses, looking far more like a traditional ‘nerd’ than Logan did. He obliged, leaving his headphones around his neck in case she decided to speak. He had chosen not to go back to Remus and Roman’s table, though they had offered. The girl, Alex, didn’t speak much, other to explain that she had been getting bullied by some of the older girls in her Physical Education class. Logan nodded but didn’t say much one way or the other in her defense. He did, however, give her his cell phone number, and the number of a self-defense trainer he knew. She began classes the next week. 

Logan did not make friends, per se, but he did find himself with a few people more often than not. He had even begun regularly speaking to Elliot and Kai again, albeit tentatively. There were a few others like Alex, who mostly appeared hoping that being around Logan would help them avoid any harassment, but there were a few others, people who also liked science and literature, people who liked the same bands as Logan, a few members of the GSA that despite not knowing Logan’s sexuality adopted him into their groups, and convinced him to attend their meetings. His group was not unlike the group the twins had around them, though they tended to be less rambunctious in the school. Outside of school ended up being a different story, and Logan began spending less and less time at his parents' house. Evenings at punk shows in subpar bars and basements, killing time at parks and people’s houses, study sessions in the only library in town, where the Librarian pretended to shush them, as if they weren’t the only ones there, protests and counter-protests took up all of his time. Logan hadn’t dropped the apathetic nature he had developed, of course, but the people he sounded himself with didn’t seem to mind, and none of them were close enough to actually know that it was an act. He adamantly refused to make up with his brother, who would come into his room every night when he heard Logan climb in through the window to tell him he was being irresponsible. Logan would counter that his grades were even better than they had been previously, he had finally gotten his history grade up from a B to an A, and it  _ had  _ been Larry’s idea that Logan begin hanging out with people his own age, anyway.

Larry reminded Logan that he had lost weight because he was now regularly skipping meals to sit outside with his ‘friends’ and was never home for dinner. He pointed out that before he spent time with these people, Logan had been in fights, but never to the extent he seemed to get into them now. Logan had not, of course, told his brother that he spent most weekends at mosh pits or punching nazis, so of course he had assumed Logan was fighting. And sure, it wasn’t Larry’s fault that Logan still didn’t have much movement in his right hand, but he had not done anything to help, and that was just as bad in Logan’s eyes.

  
  


And then, as Remus had mentioned on their first day, they began the unit on Shakespeare. Remus immediately began getting frustrated in English class, taking longer to finish quizzes, groaning at the sub-par grades he was achieving. Logan tried his best to ignore it, but eventually, he had to step in.

“Remus, you’re overthinking this sonnet. You can take it nearly at face value and comprehend the meaning.” Logan had finished his sonnet evaluation worksheet after about five minutes, and Remus had been glaring at his for nearly twenty minutes now. 

“I just.. don’t get it. What the hell is ‘summer’s lease’?” 

“Well, what is a lease?” 

“It’s basically when you like, temporarily own something right? Like renting? What the hell is summer renting?” 

“What does summer do only temporarily?”

“I don’t know? Exist, I guess?” 

“So, it would stand to reason that summer’s lease would be…?”

“The.. time it temporarily exists? So it’s just saying summer isn’t long enough?” Logan gave him a small smile, nodding.

“Precisely.” 

“Why couldn’t he just  _ say that? _ ” Remus groaned, jotting down the answer. “Are you busy tonight?” Logan raised an eyebrow, but shrugged.

“Not really, no.”

“Want to come over? I think Roman is having a weekend sleepover thing, but I really need someone who isn’t going to be singing Next to Normal songs to spend time with or I’m gonna jump in front of a moving train, which means I’ll have to walk to a train station, because otherwise, they’ll tow dad’s car, and it’s so COLD outside right now, I hate winter, so I’ll probably freeze to death before I even make it to the nearest train station, and I-” 

“Did you know Grasshoppers have ears on their stomachs? One on each side of the first abdominal segment, directly beneath the wings.” Logan said nonchalantly, pretending to not notice the way Remus took a deep breath before replying,

“What?” Logan laughed, slightly too loud in the small classroom, before nodding at Remus

“I would love to attend, Remus. So long as it isn’t going to cause a problem with your parents, or the other.. guests involved.” 

“Nah, they’ll be fine with it. See you at like five, then?” Logan nodded, going back to staring into space while Remus went back to glaring at his paper. 

  
  
  


At 5 PM, Logan stood outside the Sander’s house, looking blankly at the “For Sale” Sign in the front yard. They were leaving? What was the point of having this “Sleepover” if they were planning on abandoning their group anyway? He heard Remus’ voice call to him from the porch. 

“Specs! Come on in! We only bite with your explicit consent!” Logan turned from the sign to smirk at the teen in front of him. Remus must have seen what Logan was looking at. “Don’t worry, we aren’t going to screw up the house tonight. Dad would probably kill us.” 

“I was unaware you were moving, where will you be going?” Remus looked only slightly surprised. 

“Oh! I can’t believe you haven’t heard Roman bitching about it. We’re just moving across town, like ten blocks over. Dad wanted somewhere that had room for studios and offices and stuff, and this place only has one guest room.” Logan raised an eyebrow.

“Why is Roman complaining if you’re only moving ten blocks away? You won’t even need to transfer schools.” Remus shook his head. 

“Because he’s dramatic? He drew the short straw so He doesn’t get the attic room in the new place and he’s bummed about it. It has this massive bay window thing that turns into a skylight.” Remus grinned. “And it has an ensuite.” Roman groaned as the two walked into the living room. 

“Are you telling even MORE people about how I was SLIGHTED- Oh, Hi Logan,” Roman immediately stopped talking in his standard dramatic yell in favor of a small, more reserved voice, turning away quickly from them. Elliot coughed, and Kai was patting their back with a grin. 

“Hey, Lo! We didn’t know you were coming!” Kai was still rubbing Elliot’s back, and they were still bent over, body shaking in what appeared to be a quite serious coughing fit. 

“Are they… alright?” Logan was mildly concerned. “They seem to be having trouble breathing.” As if on cue, Elliot wheezed, in what almost sounded like laughter. 

“They’re fine, just swallowed something wrong, don’t worry.” Kai’s grin seemed out of place still, but Logan nodded. 

“Alright. Well, I am in attendance because Remus invited me. I didn’t mean to -er- interrupt.” Roman had laid his head in his hands, and Elliot had finally sat up, tears streaming down their face. Remus chuckled and pulled Logan towards the stairs. 

“Come on, Lo. I want to work on some of the English work before we have to endure them for the night.” Logan, grateful to be pulled away from the nonsense that was occurring in the living room, nodded.

“Oh, okay!” They made it up the stairs and into Remus’s room, which was far neater than Logan expected. It wasn’t spotless by any means, but it was definitely cleaner than Logan’s room. 

“I am so sorry for him, he’s such a nightmare.” Remus laughed, dropping down onto his bed with an unceremonious ‘oof’. 

“Who, Kai? He seemed a little too amused at Elliot’s coughing, but I wouldn’t call him a nightmare…” Remus looked at Logan incredulously.

“What? I meant Roman.” Logan was confused.

“What did Roman do? I mean, I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve always suspected Roman didn’t particularly like me. I don’t mind it, so long as he is civil.” Remus’s mouth was hanging open.

“You have got to be kidding.” 

“Kidding about what?” 

“Never mind.” Remus shook his head, mumbling something akin to ‘useless gays, the lot of them’ under his breath before pulling out his English textbook. “Please teach me the ways of the bard before I spontaneously combust.” 


	8. Part 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sleepover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Logan making friends because that's what I wanted to write, dammit. 
> 
> Also yeah, Logan wears makeup to hide his freckles and eye bags, deal with it I guess.

By the time they actually finished working through Remus’s English work, it was dark outside, and the crowd downstairs had grown considerably. Where there had at one point been only a few, there were now easily twenty teenagers downstairs. When Logan and Remus walked into the living room, the crowd was, in fact, singing broadway songs. Remus adamantly refused to join in, and Logan didn’t know them, so he too just watched them sing, slightly bemused. Once they had ordered pizza, 10 of them, as a matter of fact, the songs died down and the whole group was mostly just laying around, several conversations happening at once. Logan wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, occasionally making a quip or answering a question, but mostly just curled up on the couch, glad to be anywhere but at his parents' house. 

His relaxation was cut short by Kai flopping down on the couch next to him, his head in Logan’s lap.

“Give me attention.” Kai groaned, shifting uncomfortably. Logan instinctively started playing with his hair, which is what he usually did with Alex when she got like this, but he couldn’t help noticing the way Kai was grimacing as he tried to get comfortable.

“Are you… In pain?” Logan asked quietly, handing Kai a pillow to help elevate his back a bit.

“Oh. Wait, give me less attention than that.” Logan raised an eyebrow, “It’s fine, just EDS.” Kai replied, obviously hoping Logan would either be too embarrassed to ask or too proud to admit he didn’t know something.

“Oh, do you have your braces? Or pain meds you need to take? I would be willing to get them for you.” Kai looked at him, mostly shocked, but also confused.

“You know what EDS is? How do you know I even wear braces, maybe I don’t.” 

“Yes, I am vaguely familiar with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, as a member of my typical social group also has it, though theirs is the vascular kind, rather than the classic type you appear to have. And based on the constant bruises to your hands, wrists, elbows, which are all in the shape of typical bracing equipment, along with the fact that you regularly wear long sleeves or gloves to hide your braces when you do wear them,” Kai made a face at that, “plus you are, currently, wearing a knee brace, I thought it might be an easy jump to make.” Logan had kept his voice so low, it was unlikely even Remus, the closest to the pair, could hear them. 

“My meds would be great, but I don’t want them to see me in my braces. I’ll put them on before I go to sleep.” Logan pinched his face up, but with the benefit of being exceptionally tall, he also had a far longer reach than most, which meant he easily grabbed Kai’s bag, handing it to him.

“These people are your friends, you know. They wouldn’t mind you wearing something to make you more comfortable. It’s not embarrassing to show that your strength sometimes needs a little help.” 

“Don’t you mean it’s not embarrassing to show weakness?” Kai grumbled, sitting up.

“Did I  _ say _ it’s not embarrassing to show weakness? I don’t think I did. It’s horribly embarrassing to show weakness, I would know.” He grinned conspiratorially at Kai’s confusion, “Remus saw me cry like an infant less than 12 hours after meeting me. This,” Logan gestured at the braces and pills in Kai’s bag, ignoring the way Kai looked at him when he admitted that little tidbit of information, “this is not weakness. It is incredible, but vulnerable, strength. And there is no shame in them knowing that you  _ are _ strong, even if you need braces to, as my acquaintance October would say, ‘kick someone’s ass’.” Kai turned slightly red, mumbled something about kicking  _ his  _ ass if he didn’t stop with the feelings, and pulled his wrist and hand braces out of his bag. 

Kai had eventually gone back to the floor, now trying and failing to flirt with a girl Logan didn’t know but thought might be named Lauren. Remus had moved closer to Logan, leaning against the couch and was occasionally making subdued quips about something ridiculous. Mostly just random facts or commentary on the things the group was doing. 

“Lo! What music do you listen to?” Roman was holding his phone, clearly looking for something to put on. Logan turned red, realizing that pretty much any song he enjoyed would not work with this crowd as it did with his usual acquaintances.

“I.. don’t think any songs on my average playlist would be suitable for this particular group of people.” Roman nodded, as if that made sense.

“Ah, Logan likes that pg-13 music. Should have guessed that.” Logan rolled his eyes, but Roman put on Fall Out Boy with a smirk, and Logan shrugged. 

“My typical music tastes are a little more.. riot starting than this, but sure.” Roman raised an eyebrow at that comment, and then grinned in a way not unlike Remus’s smile, too wide, a little maniacal. 

“Logan Whatever-Your-Middle-Name-Is Starr I refuse to believe you have ever, once in your life been involved in a riot. You’re definitely a ‘Use Your Words’ kind of guy.” Logan replied, without thinking, with the same joke his friend group made every time someone said they ‘seemed like the type to use their words.’

“Urine Speaks Louder Than Words,” and then, as if they weren’t already the exact opposite of what the group expected, he followed it up with, “Besides, cops, Nazis, bigots, and assholes all respond better to being kicked in the face.” The chunk of the group who was listening all had wide eyes, but Remus was trying to hold back tears. He was laughing so hard he wasn’t making noise, just tiny, wheezing breaths every few seconds. “I uh... Mean... yes, certainly, a debate is the reasonable course of action to achieve our goals.” 

“Remind me to not piss you off.” Roman squeaked, his cheeks and ears a little red. Logan, who was trying to avoid eye contact, took this as fear, and immediately went to assure Roman that he would not hurt him, but then somebody got the idea to play truth or dare, which Logan politely declined participation in, which mean of course he was now sitting in a circle on the floor playing. 

“Logan! Truth or Dare?” Dahlia asked with the slightly evil grin most of the group had when asking Logan or Roman to do anything. He had a feeling they were trying to accomplish something, though Logan could not for the life of him figure out what it was. 

“Oh, Dare, I suppose.” Logan shrugged. So far they had dared him to demonstrate his “Strength” by lifting Roman bridal style, had him recite Shakespearean sonnets dramatically, and sing “Fall for You” which was a little too emo for Logan, but several of the group seemed to know. The truths were far more awkward, like asking him his favorite eye color, which was brown, his sexuality, which was queer with no more specifics, if he had any crushes, which he had admitted he hadn’t thought about and did not have an answer for. 

“Let me do your makeup!” She demanded, already pulling a makeup bag from behind her. 

“That’s fine, I suppose. Are you planning on using foundation or eyeliner?” She nodded

“Yeah, probably. I have some lighter foundation I use on Elliot sometimes.” Logan rolled his eyes, Grabbing his own bag.

“That won't be necessary, we can use mine. I’m far paler than Elliot. And much cooler-toned, at that.” Roman was looking pink and starry-eyed again. 

“You.. you wear makeup?” He asked in a small voice. 

“Yes, I often wear foundation or concealer, and wear eyeliner regularly on weekends.” He gestured at his face, which now that Roman was looking at it closely, he could see that there was makeup there. Logan looked at Dahlia with a neutral expression. “Would you prefer I take mine off before you begin?” She nodded.

He went into the washroom and removed his foundation, which left his dark circles and light freckles visible. He scrunched up his nose at his appearance before coming back into the living room, where Dahlia had turned the lights on in, and everyone had dismantled the truth or dare circle. “Are.. we no longer doing truth or dare?” Logan asked with a confused look around. 

“No, I think we’re just going to do makeovers now. All the straight boys are offended about it.” Dahlia grinned as Logan sat down. “Jesus, Lo, have you ever slept in your life? You look like Remus with those circles.” Logan rolled his eyes fondly, handing her his make-up, which was really just foundation, concealer, powder, and eyeliner. She got to work, walking him through what she was doing, though he had to admit he wasn’t paying much attention. Roman was getting his makeup done by Elliot, Remus was doing someone's makeup, but Logan hadn’t cared to remember their name. The night was domestic, a few more jokes about Logan’s comment, twenty minutes of laughter when Dahlia revealed Logan’s makeup and Roman choked on his drink, barely getting out an ‘it looks good’ before he left to get a shower and change to clean up after spitting orange soda into his lap. Logan had felt mostly embarrassed at that, not sure why Roman had had such a negative reaction in the first place. He thought the makeup was well done, though perhaps the red lips and dark blue glitter eyeshadow was a little more dramatic than he was used to. They watched movies until it was nearly light outside, which Logan complained about, only a little since he had plans in the morning, and when Logan left at 9 AM, picked up by Micheal, one of the seniors Logan hung out with most often, in the 1986 pick-up that was more rust than it was metal at this point, he was in a relatively good mood.


	9. Part 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan spends time with his not friends and has a difficult conversation with his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t even know if I should apologize. This chapter ends very bittersweet if you are familiar with the AU

Micheal and Nate were in the cab, while Logan and October were in the bed, back window open and all four singing along to Wingnut Dishwasher’s Union and sarcastically waving at the people who were staring. When they made it to their destination- October’s parents’ cabin that sat on a lake with a shore long abandoned now that it was winter and the water was too cold for swimming or fishing- they clamored out, laughing and talking about mostly nothing. They left the truck running, listening to the music and skipping rocks, and arguing about how likely it was that they were living in a simulation. Nobody asked Logan about the stray glitter on his face, and they didn’t mention his freckles, which were obvious against his pale skin despite how little skin he had gotten recently. 

It was an unspoken rule that on Saturdays, they did not discuss the real world. Saturday morning was for Red Bull (or water, in October’s case) and facetious existentialism, Saturday afternoons were for cheap pizza, and Saturday evenings were for loud music and bonfires. On Sundays, they would talk in hushed tones, and they would complain loudly, and they would ask the questions that made each other uncomfortable but were necessary anyway. 

So all throughout Saturday, they all pretended like Logan didn’t look like he was about to pass out, even as he smiled and laughed and made sarcastic remarks. They all pretended that October didn’t smell like Lysol and hospitals, ignored that they hadn’t seen him in a week, a sure sign he had been in the hospital again. They pretended like Micheal was always as tightly wound as he was all day, and that it was nothing to be worried about when his hands shook like he needed to hit something. They pretended like Nate didn’t walk with a limp, one that had not been there before the last time he went home. They pretended like the pizza was good, they pretended the sweet-tart flavor of the Red Bull didn’t make them nauseous. And when they other showed up at sundown, and October lit the fire, they pretended like they were there because they wanted to be, and they pretended like it mattered that they were there, and they pretended someone at home noticed they were gone. 

  
  


But then it was Sunday, and October told them that he had another CCSF event, that it was okay for now, that he’d rather have a thousand of them before he had another pneumothorax, that his parents were freaking out. 

Micheal told them that he had broken up with his partner, that they had cheated on him- again- and that he was frustrated but okay.

Nate told them of the fight with his stepfather, that it had ended with Nate falling backward off the porch, that it would be fine, just bruised, nothing to worry about. 

Logan told them that he hadn’t been to his parents' house for more than 20 minutes a day, that he slept outside most of the week, that he had only eaten four meals in four days. He did not mention the sleepover that had gone well, despite Roman being uncomfortable. Sunday was for the bad, not for the good. They all pretended to not notice the tears in the other’s eyes, softly offering support, but not pushing. They let go of what had been dragging them down slowly, coaxing it out like a wounded animal. It was catharsis. It was awful. It always left them exhausted, but they did it anyway because every week was hard, and it always had downs, and they couldn’t let them pile up or they would explode, and even if they didn’t call each other friends, for fear that friendship would bloom an intangible intimacy that would suffocate them without ever being known, they needed each other around. 

Logan did go back to his parents' house Sunday evening, ghosting through the dinner his mother had prepared, making small, awkward conversation with his father about the protests that had been on the news. Logan was grateful that they at least seemed to be sensible enough to disagree with the notion that homosexuality was something that should be punished. Logan made no comment on it, though if they looked hard enough at the news footage they would see Logan there, rainbow paint under his eyes, arguing with the anti-gay movement members. Perhaps they had seen but were unwilling to admit to it. Logan didn’t care either way. L hadn’t said a word, glaring at his mashed potatoes as if they had personally offended him. When their mother had finally dismissed them, the brothers went up the stairs in a single file, not saying a word as they entered their rooms. 

Logan worked on homework, headphones on as to not let his family members hear his music, ignoring the dull ache of his wrists and the throbbing behind his eyes. He did not notice the quiet knock at his door or the way it opened. He didn’t notice anything until a hand dropped onto his shoulder, and he spun around and stood so fast he probably would have passed out immediately if his brother hadn’t gripped his shoulders and guided him back into his chair. 

“Don’t die on me yet, Lo. I need your help.” Logan instinctively wanted to reject that, to tell his brother to leave, but he looked nervous, and a little sick, to be honest, and Logan couldn’t help but nod. “I’m gonna marry Dot.” 

“You’re going to do what?” Logan asked, his voice almost hysterical. “Is she pregnant? Are you joining the military?” L rolled his eyes.

“No. And no, what?” Logan went to reply but L shook his head. “Don’t answer that, I don’t care. I’m gonna marry her because I love her, and I want us to be married before we go to college in the fall. I haven’t told mom and dad. Her parents know, she already said yes.” Logan was now even more confused.

“If you have already reached a consensus I am not sure what I could possibly help with.” 

“What do you mean? I need a best man, you idiot. And I need help planning this damned thing before July without mom and dad finding out.”

“I do not know how you expect me to help you find a best man, I assume it really only involves asking them to do it. That is a one-person event. As for planning the wedding, six months isn’t a lot of time, but I’m sure…” L was staring at Logan, mouth slightly open, looking for all the world like he had just been blindsided. “Why.. are you looking at me like that?”

“Tell me you’re joking.” L said, his voice much firmer than his facial expression would lead one to assume. “Logan, tell me you were kidding.”

“Kidding about what?” Logan felt like he had missed part of the conversation somehow.

“Lo, I.. I’m asking _you_ to be my best man, not for you to help me find one.” Logan turned bright red.

“Oh, I apologize. I- I had assumed since we haven’t exactly been on speaking terms since the...” Logan gestured vaguely “...incident, that you would be asking someone else.” L was still looking stunned. 

“You really think that I would want anyone else there? You’re my brother, Lo. My best friend. It could never be anyone else.” Logan felt burning in his chest, somehow both shame and overwhelming fondness flooding his system at once.

“I would be honored, L, to be your best man.” The brothers did not talk much about the wedding itself after that, instead talking about their argument, speaking in repeating, sincere apologies, in promises to do better, and in laughing tones just a little too close to crying about how much they missed each other. They fell asleep on Logan’s bed, tear tracks and splotchy cheeks ignored, happy, and excited about what the future would hold. 


	10. Part 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not crying, you're crying, shut up.

Friday sleepovers became just as much of a tradition as Saturdays on the lake or Sundays in the den once the Sanders moved into their new house, but Logan finds himself curled up in Remus’s bay window, watching the stars and listening to Remus talk for hours most nights. Which is why it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise when someone finally asked the question that so many had assumed.

“So, are you two, like, dating now? Should we invest in soundproofing?” Roman asked one night in late March when Logan came stumbling into the kitchen in search of water. 

“Who, Remus and I?” Logan was too tired to hide his surprise. He and Remus were close, they spent most days together, and he was really one of the only people Logan referred to as ‘friend’ (best friend, even), but there had never been any inkling towards romance. “Of course not.” Roman did look surprised at that. Logan was trying to deal with both the fact that someone thought that he and Remus were romantically involved and that Roman, who almost always avoided Logan, looking uncomfortable and confused whenever Logan sought him out for conversation, was capable of being a normal human being. “Remus and I are friends, he’s my  _ best friend, _ but He’s.. not exactly my type.” 

“Oh, I, sorry, I guess. I didn’t mean to offend, I just know you said you were queer, I assumed you were into guys.” 

“I am.” Roman looked even more confused at that, “just not Remus. One, I Iook for someone who shares important core beliefs with me, but otherwise is an opposition to my personality. Where I am relatively quiet, I prefer someone loud, but not just chaotically, like Remus. I prefer a partner who is confident. Someone who  _ is  _ intelligent, but not necessarily in the same way I am. Remus and I share too many interests to be compatible romantically. The dynamic would just be as it is now, chaos and humor, but not romance.” Logan shrugged. “Why are you awake, anyhow? It’s quite late, Roman. Don’t you have weight training in the morning?” 

“I can’t sleep. Too many thoughts for that.”

“Oh? If you want to share, I’m all ears. Figuratively, of course.”

“Would.. would you go to prom with me? If I asked?” Roman blurted out, immediately turning red. “I- oh my god I can’t believe I said that out loud, I’m sorry- I can go”

“ _ Are _ you asking?” Logan replied in a voice that was completely neutral.

“Y-yes? If that is.. okay?” Roman squeaked, looking like he might faint.

“I would, er, enjoy that, I believe,” Logan replied, tugging at the collar of his NASA t-shirt. “Though, I am surprised you would ask  _ me _ of all people. I was under the impression you were not particularly... fond of me.” Logan admitted, his cheeks and ears slightly pink.

“I’ve been hopelessly and all-consumingly in love with you since you came stomping into school in that leather jacket on the first day.” Roman shrugged. “I thought you liked Remus, so I tried to avoid it, which probably just made me sound like a moron most of the time.”

“Only some of the time.” Logan counter-argued.

“That first time you slept over I almost died several times just because you looked at me.” Roman looked faint. “When you and Remus came in I was actually talking about how hopelessly in love with you I was, which is why Elliot almost died laughing, and I nearly died of embarrassment. Then when you were talking about your rebel shit, about music and rioting I actually thought I was gonna pass out because you had this fire in your eyes like you were single-handedly going to fix all the shit that was broken. Every time you answered a question in truth or dare, you answered it like it was the most important thing in the world, and you  _ sang  _ and I thought I would die  _ then _ . 

Then Dahlia did your makeup, and you looked so  **_pretty_ ** , and your eyes were sparkling and I wanted to flirt but instead, I choked and dumped soda on myself and then sat in the shower for twenty minutes wishing I would be struck by lightning so I didn’t have to face you and oh my god I’m rambling,” 

Logan was smiling. It wasn’t something he did much, but the more Roman talked, the more his face pulled up, his heart rose to his throat, he could practically feel the waves of adoration pouring off of Roman, so open and sincere, and it was only then that Logan realized that the reason he was so  _ disappointed  _ when Roman was awkward around him was that he wanted this, this conversation, so desperately it ached, and he didn’t know what came over him, but he stepped forward, his hands gently cradling Romans like he was the most precious thing in the world, because he  _ was, _ wasn’t he? He leaned down and pressed a kiss to Roman’s lips, a little beyond ‘gentle’ but he didn’t have the words to express how he felt, so he did his best with what was at his disposal. Roman just let out a breathless laugh when Logan pulled away, staring up at him with his warm, cinnamon eyes just a little glassy. The air around them buzzed, not quite fireworks, but something more than what was there before.

The moment was shattered by Remus, who pretended to gag in the doorway behind them. Logan and Roman jumped, turning to stare at him with identical shocked expressions, but he was beaming. “Thank god you two idiots figured out how talking worked, I was afraid Lo was gonna short circuit. But if you two are done, we need to go back to sleep because we really do have weight training at 4:45 am, Ro, and I am not going to be late again.”

***

Lunch was an endeavor, the two close but previously separated tables now pushed together, Logan’s group and Roman and Remus’s group making awkward small talk, with the exception of October and Kai hitting it off immediately, finding solace in having someone to talk doctors with, finally. The rest were dealing with the others, all of them occasionally laughing at the way Roman and Logan were caught up in flirting. It was a Friday, which meant it was sleepover night, which Roman and Remus’s father had agreed to on the caveat that they stayed in the living room now that Logan and Roman were... whatever they were, which had not been discussed.

“Lo, Toby and I are gonna get tattoos next weekend. You down?” Micheal asked with a grin. “Toby’s cousin got a gun and said he’d do ‘em for free.” Logan instinctively wanted to say no, because that was a horrible idea, why on earth would he want a mediocre tattoo permanently on his skin, but what came out of his mouth was,

“Fuck yeah I am.” Roman and Remus, as well as several others from both groups, looked nervous about that, but none of them said anything. It was a discussion for another time.

***

“Larry! We have to have flowers!” Dot whined, which made Logan chuckle quietly. “I am not getting married and throwing a bouquet of Ferns.”

“You don’t even  _ like _ flowers! You actually told me, when we started dating, to never buy you flowers. Why would we have them at the wedding if you don’t like them?”

“Well- well because  _ you _ like them, L.” Dot had that soft expression on her face again, the one that said she would do anything for his happiness. “Maybe we can do some violets or something, and the rest can be foliage. Compromise.” 

“If I may interject, and frankly even if you said no I would anyway, I think you’re both the most disgustingly romantic nightmare couple I’ve ever met, and I hate you.” Logan was color coding binders on the floor with seating charts and schedules, pointedly ignoring the way his whole body hurt to move. “Also, are we inviting all of Dot’s brothers? Because if so we’ll have to dedicate them two tables, and I need to know which sets will get along best.” Larry and Dot grinned, both tackling L, pulling his from the binder and into a hug.

“How is it that I have six brothers and somehow my favorite is the one that I have to sign a contract for?” Dot teased, ruffling Logan’s hair. Her hand paused when he flinched and the smile immediately dissolved. “Sorry, sweetheart.” 

“No, you don’t need to apologize. You know that.” Logan smiled sadly at her. His brother cut the tension.

“On the subject of disgustingly  **_Roman_ ** -tic things, how's that boyfriend of yours?” Larry grinned at the blush. 

“We have a wedding to plan. I know you’ve already booked the venue, but the caterer has not been confirmed. You’re getting married in four months and 9 days. We need to make these decisions now, or we’re going to have to learn how to cook and bake.” 

“When you and Roman get married, do you think you’ll be older than 21? As your best man, I think I’d like to take you to Vegas.”

“Dot is going to be my best man.” Logan deadpanned, biting back a laugh at Larry’s faux hurt expression. Dot ‘whooped’ beside them. 

“Nice, I definitely want to take you to Vegas.”

“Also, who’s to say I’ll marry Roman. Maybe by then I’ll have lost my mind and marry Alex.” Logan shrugged. “Or that new girl, Terra. Though I think she may be interested in Remus, actually.” Larry was loudly laughing now.

“Logan… you know you’re gay, right?” Dot asked with false concern.

“Preposterous. I’ve never had a molecule of serotonin in my life.” Larry laughed at that, but then got a serious look on his face.

“You know, Lo, We’re renting a house right outside of town starting in June.” Dot looked at L with raised eyebrows.

“I thought we were waiting until the paperwork was done to tell him?” 

“Tell me what? I already knew you were getting a house, Dot.” L shook his head.

“ _ We’re _ getting a house.”

“That’s what I just said.”

“A three-bedroom house.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize it was so large. Were you planning on having children, then? I thought you were waiting until after you had finished your degrees.” 

“One of the rooms is going to be a study, the other is going to be for family.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. Having so many siblings-in-law I assume you two will have regular visitors.” Dot was laughing lightly at L’s expression and the rapid way his hands were flailing. 

“Logan, the room isn’t for my side of the family.” Dot was looking at him pointedly. He still did not understand.

“So it...is for you two to have kids? Again- I thought you wanted to wait unti-”

“It’s for you, dumbass!” Larry looked like he was going to explode, and Logan was quite sure  _ he _ was imploding. “We’re getting a three-bedroom house outside of town because we want you to live there, not because Dot has a big family or because we are going to have kids. We’re going to get you out of here, kiddo.” 

Logan couldn’t breathe. He wanted to argue, to tell them it was too much, that he could never accept, but what came out of his mouth, small and broken and just a little bit afraid was, “you are?” Which was all that they needed before the floodgates were broken, and the two brothers were crying and hugging. Despite the height difference, Logan had never felt smaller than when his brother wrapped him in his arms and whispered, 

“I’m never going to leave you alone with them again, Logan. I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, yeah, I will be addressing Dee's actual name in this AU. Only sort of in this fic. Though, there is a bit of a hint there if anyone is familiar with mythology. I actually already had a plan in place in case of a Deceit name reveal.


	11. Part 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This just in! Author returns after a month with a subpar chapter about domestic fluff and also back alley tattoo practices!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long y'all. My youngest daughter has been sick for nearly a month now so I've been beside myself. The next chapter is half-written so hopefully, it won't take nearly as long.

“Logan, I don’t know if getting a tattoo from some rando is a great idea.” Remus was hanging upside down from his bed, watching Logan work on his biology homework. Roman was sitting in a bean bag chair, working on his history homework.

“It’ll be fine, Rem. if it turns out bad I’ll just get it covered up when I’m 18.”

“What if it gets infected? And then because you won’t go to a hospital ever it’s gonna spread to your hand and arm and heart and they’re gonna have to amputate and then how are you going to become a doctor with only one arm or you’ll boil alive from the fever and we won’t-”

“Did you know dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors?” Logan remarked without looking up from his book. Remus looked baffled. Roman looked slightly annoyed.

“Why do you always do that? It’s rude to interrupt someone, you know.” 

“Do what?” Logan glanced at Remus for some clarification, hoping he would understand Roman as his brother better than Logan did as his boyfriend. Remus shrugged.

“You do it all the time. Rem will be talking about something and then you just like, cut him off with some random fact.” Logan snorted at Roman’s now protective tone.

“It’s to pull him out of a panic spiral. When someone with OCD starts spiraling, like he just was, you can sometimes confuse them enough to keep them from freaking out. A distraction technique, essentially.” The twins both looked confused. They spoke at the same time,

“Remus doesn’t have OCD.” 

“I don’t have OCD.” Logan gave them a confused smile.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I get the joke.” 

“It’s not a joke. My diagnosis is just anxiety, It’s not OCD.”

“If you don’t have OCD I’ll eat my boot.” Logan gestured at Remus vaguely. “You literally display every single symptom, how has your therapist never tested you?”

“Picani didn’t diagnose me, he just kept my diagnosis from my old doctor. What do you mean by all the symptoms?”

“I mean- I could be wrong, but it seems obvious, right? You get stuck in cycles of being completely obsessed with a thought or potential event, you find something that makes you feel better, then you feel compelled to do it any time the thought arises.”

“I think everyone does that,” Remus mumbled.

“Where in your closet do your clothes go specifically?”

“Be more specific,” Remus asked, uneasily.

“100% cotton shirts, where do they go?”

“Uh, towards the back. I can’t see them when I open my closet but I know they won’t get eaten by moths because moths don’t eat cotton because it doesn’t have Keratin but I have to keep anything that moths might eat toward the front so I can check on it when I open the closet doors and-”

“And in what order do your books go on the shelf?” 

“There isn’t a specific order, but the ones I’ve read the most I keep on the middle two shelves so they’re at eye level, while books I’ll never read but still keep or books I’ve read but didn’t like are at the bottom because I probably won’t see them unless I bend down, which I don’t do, and books I want to read but haven’t yet are on the top shelves because I feel better knowing that if I decide to read them all I have to do is reach for them.” Logan nodded.

“What do you do if you see what you believe is a carpet beetle? Walk me through your usual process.”

“Uh, I’d probably try to catch it, google carpet beetles, I have a bookmark for them actually, make sure that’s what it is. If I’m unsure I’ll google black beetles and make sure it’s not something else, check to see if I can find any more, if I can’t I’ll put the one outside then go shower and then I’ll clean the room I found it in, wash my hands and then I’ll double-check to see if any more have come out, then shower again.” Roman looked totally baffled.

“I mean, those seem a little extreme, but I don’t know if that’s OCD.” 

“Remus, what’s your routine when you walk to your therapist's office?”

“What day? On Wednesday appointments I leave the school, come home, change into my boots, dad drops me off, I wait outside the office until 3:29, I walk in, Picani says “Remus! Right in time!” and we do our session. I leave, turn right, walk the long way to Starbucks, order my drink-” Logan raised his eyebrows at him as if this was making his point. Which it was.”Oh. Huh.”

  
  


“Have you mentioned this to your therapist?”

“No, I guess I never realized.” Remus was looking a little put-off. “Does it... bother you?”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Logan waved a hand vaguely at him. “I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to talk to you.” He smirked. “Now, had I realized what I was getting myself into when I started dating Roman, maybe I would have made some better choices.” Roman laughed, throwing his pillow at Logan’s face. This action set off what was probably the most aggressive pillow fight known to date, and it only ended when Roman swung his arm around to catch a pillow hurling at Logan, only to miss and essentially punch him in the eye.

“Fuck! Ow, what the fuck,” Logan held his eye, looking at Roman in complete exasperation. “Roman I think you just broke my face.” Roman was stone-still, horrified, and Remus looked just as panicked, hands up as if to placate to the other teens if they turned to violence. “Woah, okay, why did it get so serious all of the sudden?” 

“Logan I am so sor-”

“Wait, what? It was an accident, Ro. No big deal. How bad does it look?” When Logan moved his hand, Roman actually flinched back. “Damn, that bad? This is what I get for not wearing my glasses…” He looked in the mirror and snorted. “Oh, that’s gonna be gnarly later. L will kill you if I still have a black eye for prom, you know.” Logan glanced back at the twins who were still pale and nervous.

“Logan, I am so sorry, it was an accident, I promise I would never- I couldn’t…” 

“Ro?” Logan had a soft smile on his face. “You’re an idiot.” Roman immediately snapped out of his panic to dramatically gasp. 

“How dare you, peasant!” Logan snorted, coming back over and sitting down.

“I spend time in mosh pits. I think at this point every person I like had given me a black eye. Except for Remus, weirdly enough.” 

The evening calmed down significantly once Remus brought Logan and ice-pack. They mostly just went back to homework, Remus occasionally anxiously bringing up Logan’s tattoo, which he was supposed to get the next day. It was mostly Logan with his back to Roman’s chest, only half awake, listening to Remus talk excitedly about sea urchins, which was apparently his new favorite sea creature.   
  
Getting the tattoo was fine, if uneventful. The ‘artist’ seemed a little weird, and possibly drunk, but Logan had never gotten a tattoo, so he assumed this wasn’t too far off from how they usually went. When he made it to the Sander’s house, a trash bag held on with electrical tape around his wrist, he was still grinning like a madman. Remus laughed at him and took a photo on his stupid polaroid camera that was completely ridiculous because they had cellphones with cameras, and when Logan took the bag off, Remus took a picture of that too, even though it was red and a little puffy and the lines didn’t look very good. Logan loved it, and both Remus and Roman couldn’t help but like something that made him so happy. 

They both liked it a lot less a week later, when Logan showed up to their house pale and a little grey looking, arm tucked up towards his chest. 

“I thought It was healing alright so I left it uncovered, the artist said it was normal for it to be a little red for a while so I didn’t question it. We went to a show, and to a party and it  _ hurts _ and I don’t know  _ why. _ ” Logan’s words were a little slurred, he was obviously a little out of it, so they guided him inside and sat him on the couch. 

“Can we see, Lo?”

“It’s really gross, way worse than it was last night... I don’t think-” Remus pulled Logan’s arm away from his chest and Roman almost gagged. It was significantly worse than it had looked the last time they’d seen it only two nights ago, now yellow and swollen and bleeding again. “I don’t know why it got so infected... I was taking care of it..” From how close they were together, they could tell that Logan had a fever, and he was definitely sweating. 

“Something must have gotten into it while you were out. You need antibiotics.” 

“No doctors,” Logan grumbled, pressing his face into Roman’s shoulder. “Please.” They agreed, because it was hard to argue with Logan in general, but especially about doctors, but both brothers looked uneasy as they helped Logan clean the tattoo and re-wrap it. 


	12. Part 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Infections, Prom, and Running Away

When, three days later, Logan’s fever still hadn’t broken and there were now spots on his arm and chest, Roman finally convinced him to see a doctor. Remus hadn’t spoken much to Logan in nearly two days, because he had panicked and looked up the symptoms of a Staph infection and Logan had less than two hours later mentioned his joints had started to hurt, and Remus had fully gone into a meltdown. Now, he was sitting next to Logan in the car, holding his hand that was not cradled against his chest while their dad drove them to the closest free clinic an hour away. It was the only compromise they could come to, Logan unwilling to go to the hospital in town that had records of him. The twins' father had kept his mouth shut, not putting in any input other than where the closest clinic was. He was absolutely certain Logan would have to be admitted, but he didn’t mention it, and calmly explained to the hospital staff that they had just picked Logan, who was being called Remus in case they needed assurance that Thomas was actually his guardian. None of the teens had ID’s, so the story was bought easily.    
  


To nobody's surprise, Logan was admitted and given intravenous antibiotics, as well as a long lecture about his idiocy at not getting it looked at sooner, and was left to suffer with the twins and Mr. Sanders at his side. Remus took a photo of Logan ‘For blackmail purposes’ after two days, and Logan spent another 18 in the hospital before they finally deemed him safe enough to leave. The whole wrist looked gnarled and a bit decayed, most of the tattoo completely unrecognizable and scarred. The doctors gave Logan charts with physical therapy motions he was to do twice a day so that the injury wouldn’t leave him permanently unable to use his hand, which he promptly threw in the parking lot trash can, and sent him home. He was very glad the Sanders’s had very good insurance, cause almost a month in the hospital couldn’t have been cheap. He was also very grateful he had been able to switch to temporary online schooling while he was in the hospital, which meant he wouldn’t be considered truant. In the week following him getting out of the hospital, the twins and Logan celebrated with ice cream and Starbucks and sleepovers. Roman forgave Logan’s idiocy, Logan apologized for scaring Remus, and things seemed okay.

But as intelligent as Logan was, he was not  _ wise.  _ So when he had healed enough to almost forget the fact that he’d never be able to get away with bare wrists around his parents again, he found himself in a tattoo chair.

In fairness, this was a much cleaner, much more sober artist, but Roman was still so mad he could throttle Logan. Remus, who was equally as angry but also trying his best to be supportive, went with Logan this time. Logan looked so happy in the chair Remus couldn’t help but snap a photo, but honestly, the tattoo didn’t look great, so he didn’t bother taking a picture of it. The supposed-to-be-raven looked more like a gothic pigeon, but Logan beamed all sunshine and mischief, Remus couldn’t help but smile too. 

  
  


And then, one week later, it was prom night, and Logan, Roman, Remus, Terra (who was Remus’s date), Larry, and Dot went together. The six danced, laughed, and Remus took photos of Logan and Larry in their suits, looking like twins if you ignored the fact that Logan now stood half a foot taller. They found themselves in a Denny’s at 2:30 that morning, still dressed to the nines and all eating horrendous diner food. Logan, L, and Dot were talking wedding planning, while Roman, Remus, and Terra were essentially playing 20 questions. 

Color schemes and seating arrangements became never have I ever, which became the six breaking off, Remus and Terra sneaking off with coy smiles and promising to text in the morning, leaving Roman, Logan, Dot and Larry to drive around town, listening to music and laughing, playing truth or dare once they had made it to a smaller park right outside of town until the sun came up. L dropped Dot and Roman off at home, and he and Logan rode back to their parent’s house in tired and comfortable silence. When they arrived home, L went straight to bed, but Logan decided to shower. He was in his bedroom, a towel tied around his waist as he searched for his phone, which was definitely somewhere on his bed. He did not hear his father open the door, nor did he see it, as his back was turned away, but he certainly didn’t have to wait long before he made his presence known.

“Logan Alexander Starr, what the fuck is that on your back?” Logan froze at his father’s voice, unwilling to turn around and see his father’s face.

“Can.. can we just talk about it? Nobody else needs to be involved.” Logan didn’t mention ‘nobody else’s’ name, but they both knew who he was talking about. 

“Is that a fucking tattoo?”

“What does it even MATTER? I’m not a child anymore, father. I can make my own decisions.” This was clearly not the right thing to say, as the conversation declined rapidly from there.

So when Logan showed up at the Sander’s front door, the left side of his face black and his lip bleeding, with nothing but a backpack over one shoulder, a slightly manic smile, and a question, Thomas couldn’t help but sigh at this teenager who had so quickly become a staple in his life.

“Do you think I could stay here for a couple of days? I don’t think I’m welcome at my parent’s place.” 

“Come on in, kiddo. Roman isn’t here, but Remus is practicing his photography in the backyard. I’m sure he’d like a living subject.” Logan nodded and found himself grateful for the hundredth time that he had found somewhere that actually felt like home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter left!!! I'm shook.
> 
> Find me at SimplySanders on tumblr


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I can only apologize. Warning for character death.

“Listen, We are living in what can only be described as the future. The first probe to enter into orbit around Mercury, they just found a tiny Moon orbiting Pluto! They found like, dozens of planets within the “Habitable Zone”. Fermi’s paradox can kiss my ass, we’re absolutely about to find aliens.”

“Great, Buzz-Kill Aldrin. Now, will you stand still? We have a practice dinner for your brother’s wedding in like, a week, and if you don’t stop moving this damn suit is never going to be tailored properly.”

“I don’t know why I can’t just wear it like it was, anyway. It was fine.” Logan gave Roman a look that was both a pout and a glare.

“Babe, I love you, but if you think this thing fits fine I’m gonna have to take you to get new glasses. It barely touches you.” 

“You didn’t say anything about it not fitting me when I bought it!”

“You’ve lost twenty pounds since you bought it, so I can’t imagine why it doesn’t fit you.” Remus’s voice snarked from the doorway. “Really, who could guess as to why it looks two sizes too big. Must have grown in the wash.” Logan groaned, and Roman swatted at him to keep him from moving.

“It isn’t my fault I’m losing weight again. Why must I be punished?”

“This isn’t a punishment you drama queen-” Logan kicked Roman’s shin “Ow! Stop! Moving!” Logan just smirked in response. “But you won’t let us buy you a new one, so we have to get this one to fix you like it’s supposed to. Unless you plan on gaining weight before the thirteenth.” Logan pouted, but let Roman continue pinning the jacket. Once they had finished, Roman allowed Logan to take it off and relax, which immediately led to him debating Remus on which space discovery in the last seven months had been the best. 

And then, right as Logan began to argue with Remus’s frankly very good point that sending probes to mercury was cooler because it was something done actively, rather than just spotting something, Logan’s phone rang. It was his mother, so he rolled his eyes and declined the call. He hadn’t even gotten a word out before it rang again, and he groaned loudly before answering.

“What, Mother?” He spat out the question as if it was a curse, and Roman and Remus both wrinkled their noses when they realized who it was. Their expressions turned to panic when Logan went ghostly pale at whatever she said, and bolted from the room. 

They found him outside, about two blocks from the house, among the commotion of a car accident. They both looked at what almost certainly used to be a car but now resembled a pretzel in shape and a burning scrap pile in everything else, and looked at Logan, who was screaming and trying to get past the cops towards the crash. Firefighters, cops, and an ambulance all had sirens blaring, and Logan was still yelling when they pulled who could only be Larry out of what remained of the car. Roman nearly fainted, and Remus let out a hollow cry, but their reactions were nothing compared to Logan’s, who took one look at what was left of his brother, burned skin and scraps of a purple jacket stained red, both legs bent at unnatural angles and just barely breathing, and he immediately stopped fighting. The cops who were holding him back seemed to be completely supporting his weight as they lowered him to the ground. Even though the abrasive lights, the twins could see the way Logan had gone from milk pale to grey, the only color left in him the blotchy red on his face, and he was crying, mumbling something that they couldn’t hear from where they stood. The cop looked up and saw them, waving them over insistently. Larry- or perhaps his body- had been put in the ambulance, and it had sped away. By the time Roman and Remus reached Logan, another paramedic was kneeling in front of him, trying to get him to focus. Logan was staring blankly towards the spot the ambulance had been, and now that they were closer they could hear his mumbling, which turned out to just be “That’s my brother” over and over. 

  
  


When they made it to the hospital, Logan’s parents were already there. The police had called them and offered to drive Logan to the hospital to meet them there, but Roman had declined, and taken Logan back to the house to put on shoes and a jacket before Mr. Sanders had driven them there. As soon as they stepped through the doorway, Mrs. Starr had burst into tears and grabbed Logan. Remus and Roman were frankly too busy being surprised that she didn’t reek of cheap liquor to be surprised that Logan hugged her back. 

Logan explained, in the car, that His mother had called to make sure Larry had made it to the Sander’s house because she heard from a neighbor that there had been an accident on the road Larry would have taken. Logan had, of course, presumed the worst, and despite his pessimism rarely being accurate, it had been this one time. Now, though, all Remus could think about what it would mean for Logan if Larry didn’t pull through. Roman was on the phone with Dot, who was supposed to be picking up her veil, explaining as gently as he could what had happened, and Logan’s father was stock still, standing with his wife and son and just barely shaking. 

A doctor came through the doors, and at the pale and defeated look on his face, the three Starrs all held an identical look of horror. Roman felt sick as the doctor apologized, and his voice broke when he told Dot not to come. He told her to go home, and he apologized, and he hung up. He had barely put the phone in his pocket when Logan wrapped his arms around Roman’s neck, tucked his head into his shoulder, and whispered brokenly “He didn’t make it” before Roman felt him collapse. Roman held him, supporting his weight and gently moving to the sofa, and he only briefly registers that Logan’s parent’s actually seem totally okay with the contact, neither looking put out at all, which shocks him if only because he expects them to have no redeeming qualities. They sat near Roman and Logan, and didn’t quite acknowledge anything, and the waiting room mourned in near-perfect silence.

  
  


Logan was packing his clothes while Roman tried to convince him he didn’t need to leave, that he could stay with them as long as he needed, but it was a battle already lost. Logan hadn’t spoken, hadn't eaten, and had hardly slept since they returned home from the hospital three nights prior, and when his mother had called, asking him to come, he simply mumbled ‘of course’ and started packing. Roman didn’t know what to do, had no idea how to help as Logan moved mechanically around the room. 

“I know you feel like you need to be there, Lo, but I don’t know if that’s a great idea. You were on such bad terms, and being in that house can’t be good for you. Please, just stay one more night, and Dad can drive you there in the morning.” Roman was nearly begging at this point, uneasy with the thought of being away from Logan right now. Logan only shook his head and smiled sadly at Roman.

“She’s right, Ro. I need to go home.” 

When Roman heard that, heard Logan refer to what had always been his ‘parent’s house’ as home, he knew that whatever fire and spite had kept Logan going for so long had fizzled to nothing more than smoke. So when his boyfriend, who looked less and less like a person and more like a walking corpse every minute lifted his bag and pecked him on the cheek before leaving, Roman let him go. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay brb I'm going to go cry in a hole. Feel free to scream at me on Tumblr. @SimplySanders

**Author's Note:**

> Check me out at SimplySanders on Tumblr! and leave a comment and some kudos! I crave human interaction. 
> 
> I'll update this as I finish each chapter, so like, expect pretty regular updates.


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